


Realizations

by Moon_Blitz



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M, Mission Fic, Ninja Politics, Post-Canon, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:28:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24330586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moon_Blitz/pseuds/Moon_Blitz
Summary: Dragged into a mission by Naruto, Kiba comes to some surprising conclusions.
Relationships: Inuzuka Kiba/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 1
Kudos: 64
Collections: Exchange no Jutsu 2020





	Realizations

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jujub](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jujub/gifts).



> Betaed by the lovely R.

Kiba was poking at his ramen when he heard a familiar voice shout, “Hey, Kiba, Akamaru!” By his feet, Akamaru lifted his head and barked in greeting, tail thumping on the floor.

A moment later Naruto was sliding onto the stool next to him, waving excitedly at Teuchi. “The usual, please!” He then turned to Kiba, blue eyes bright with happiness. “How’s it going? Haven’t seen you guys around much lately – doing anything exciting?”

Casting a look at his lukewarm ramen and giving it up as a lost cause, Kiba set down his chopsticks and shrugged. “Nah, things have been pretty quiet. Ma has got us helpin’ with the new batch of puppies, but other than that, we haven’t been doing too much.” Which was why he was sitting at Ichiraku’s in the middle of the afternoon, trying to figure out what to do with his life.

Akamaru whined softly and nudged his ankle, telling him that they would find their place eventually. Kiba gave his partner a smile, knowing Akamaru didn’t like him moping like this.

“What about you, Naruto? Been up to anything cool?” Kiba asked instead, noticing that Naruto had tilted his head to the side and was looking at him oddly.

Naruto brightened at the question and laughed as he answered. “Kakashi-sensei and Shikamaru have been keeping me busy with paperwork and stuff I need to know if I want to become Hokage, so I haven’t been on a mission in a while. Hey, I know! Why don’t we take one together? Something simple, maybe a C-rank?” Teuchi delivered his ramen then, and Naruto happily dug into it, mumbling to himself about missions between mouthfuls.

Kiba straightened, staring at Naruto. Where had that offer come from? Naruto was a war hero and widely regarded as Kakashi’s successor; he didn’t need to take anything so run-of-the-mill as a C-rank mission. Akamaru yipped, saying that a mission would be great and that both he and Kiba needed to get out of the village for a while.

“Really?” Kiba muttered, looking at Akamaru. “I thought you were excited to teach the pups how to be proper ninken?”

His partner huffed and barked, saying that the puppies would still be there when they got back.

“Alright, alright!” Kiba held up his hands as Akamaru whined at him to accept Naruto’s offer already! “A mission sounds good,” he said to Naruto, who had somehow already finished his own bowl and was eyeing Kiba’s abandoned one hungrily. “It’s gone cold,” Kiba added, but pushed it towards his friend anyway.

“Thanks!” Naruto chirped, slurping up the ramen happily. “Ooo, spicy!” he yelped a moment later, coughing as he swallowed a mouthful of noodles. “I thought you didn’t like spicy food ‘cause of your clan abilities?”

Kiba shrugged, blushing faintly. Leave it to Naruto to remember the weird bits of his clan’s abilities. “Eh, it was on special, so I thought I’d try it.” The spicy ramen was actually really good, but he hadn’t been in the mood for it. He gave Teuchi an apologetic smile, who waved it off and placed a small bowl of soya ramen in front of Kiba.

“On the house!” Teuchi said cheerfully when Kiba opened his mouth to protest, so he huffed and picked up his chopsticks with a nod of thanks.

Naruto proceeded to eat two more bowls while Kiba worked his way through his, chattering on about the assorted paperwork Shikamaru kept giving him. “Didja know the Hokage has to review the tariffs places on imported goods and compare them to the tariffs in the capital to make sure we aren’t overcharging or undercharging for them? And that the same thing is done on stuff we export, even though the goods are staying within the country? Like, I get it if stuff is coming from Suna or something, but why do the prices between here and the capital have to be different?”

“Uh...” Kiba was thrown by the sudden economics lesson, and took a moment to think about it, remembering the lessons his mother had literally pounded into his head about the specialty goods the Inuzuka clan imported and exported. “Well, we are a Hidden Village, so tariffs and stuff are different because we’re harder to get to than the capital. And don’t travelling merchants need a permit issued by the Daimyo in order to sell stuff here anyway?” He seemed to recall Ino complaining that travelling merchants were undercutting her family’s shop by selling exotic plants at a lower price, even though the merchants had to pay more to bring and sell plants in Konoha. His clan didn’t have much problems like that, since civilians rarely had a need for specialty ninken goods.

“Ugh, I wish I understood this kinda stuff as easily as you, Kiba,” Naruto moaned, adding his empty bowl to the stack next to him and setting down his chopsticks. “I’ll ask Shika if I can bring some non-classified stuff with me, and maybe we could go over it? If you don’t mind, of course!” Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his neck. “If you just wanna focus on the mission, that’s fine too!”

Remembering Naruto’s test scores from the Academy, Kiba could see how his friend could struggle with advanced stuff like this when he didn’t have a solid grasp of the basics. He had teased his classmate about it back then, thinking him lazy and dumb, but now he could see it wasn’t Naruto’s fault at all. Damn their Academy teachers for ignoring Naruto just because he held the Kyuubi!

“I don’t mind helpin’ out,” Kiba said with a smile, surprised when Naruto beamed back at him.

“You’re the best, Kiba! I’ll go ask Kakashi-sensei what missions are available, and let you know by tonight what’s up. Thanks for the ramen, Teuchi!” Naruto said, placing some cash on the counter and practically bouncing out of his seat. “Bye, Akamaru, Kiba!”

Kiba blinked in the sudden silence that followed the door slamming shut behind his friend, wondering what the hell he had just gotten into.

\- - -

“Oi, Kiba! Mission scroll for you!” his mother hollered up the stairs, and Kiba looked up from his half-packed bag.

“I’ll get it in a sec!” he shouted back, double-checking the things he had already packed and making a mental list of what he needed to grab as he got up and went downstairs to get the mission briefing. Akamaru darted ahead of him and grabbed it off the table before Kiba could stop him, making Kuromaru bark in laughter and his mother roll her eyes.

Tugging the scroll from his partner’s mouth with a mock-growl, Kiba leaned against the table and unrolled it, scanning the details quickly. It was a simple delivery mission to Yugakure, which made Kiba smile. Of course Naruto would pick the place with lots of hot springs to go to.

“Didn’t realize you were looking for a mission,” his mother said from the kitchen where she was preparing formula for a sick ninken puppy.

“Wasn’t really,” Kiba replied absently, going over the details again. “Naruto suggested it, and Akamaru really wants to get out of the village for a bit.” His partner growled in protest at the implied blame, and Kiba nudged him with his knee.

“Where ya headin’?”

“Yugakure.” Kiba rolled up the scroll and stuffed it in the inner pocket of his jacket, bending slightly to scratch Akamaru behind the ears. “Shouldn’t be much longer than a week. Need me to grab anything for the clan?”

“Nothin’ in particular. We got a shipment of specialty meat from them last month, remember?” Tsune replied, testing the formula on her wrist before nodding in satisfaction. “I’ll be up most of the night with the pup, so have a good trip and see you when you get back.”

Kiba nodded and waved as she and Kuromaru left, Akamaru yipping in farewell. “Alright boy, let’s go pack!” Akamaru nodded and trotted ahead of him back upstairs, intending to add some lounging clothes to his pack since they would probably stay at an inn once they reached Yugakure.

\- - -

Kiba and Akamaru met Naruto early the next morning by Konoha’s main gate, the latter yawning and still looking sleepy. “I was up late studying,” Naruto explained, catching Kiba’s questioning look.

“Shikamaru has you working pretty hard, huh?” he said as Naruto filled out the required paperwork.

“Yeah, but if I need to do it to become Hokage, I’ll do it!” Naruto replied with a grin as they left the gate with a wave to the two chuunin on guard duty.

“Or you could just let me become the next Hokage,” Kiba joked, Akamaru barking loudly in agreement.

“No way! It’s my dream to become Hokage!” Naruto shot back, leaping into the trees and bounding northward. Kiba swung onto Akamaru’s back and held on as his partner leaped after their friend, quickly matching Naruto’s pace.

“It’s my dream too!” Kiba called over the wind, giving Naruto a cocky grin. “And it sounds like I understand the duties better than you, Dead Last!”

“Don’t get your hopes up, Dog Breath!” Naruto shouted in return, grinning as well. “The Hokage is the strongest person in Konoha, remember? There’s no way you guys are stronger than me!”

“That’s not a fair argument! No one in the village is as strong as you!” Except maybe Sasuke, but Kiba wasn’t about to admit that.

“Catch up to me before sunset, and maybe I’ll consider letting you be Hokage!” Naruto said, giving him a wicked smile before flaring his chakra and zooming ahead.

“S-Sunset?!” Kina sputtered, then roared, “We’re stopping for lunch, damnit!”

Naruto’s laughter floated back to them, and Akamaru howled and sped up, Kiba cackling with glee as he leaned forward to reduce the wind resistance.

\- - -

Fortunately, Naruto did stop for lunch, but by that point Kiba and Akamaru had been two miles behind him and losing steam fast. When Kiba did finally land in the clearing Naruto was sitting in, he was sweaty, out of breath and annoyed that he didn’t have massive chakra reserves to drawn on.

“Crazy – Uzumaki – reserves,” he puffed, collapsing beside his friend and accepting the ration bar Naruto handed him.

“Ehehehe, sorry?” Naruto said, grinning as Kiba glared at him. Akamaru lifted his head from the stream he was drinking from and growled as well, making Naruto wince. “Alright, we can go slower after lunch!”

“I’m gonna need an hour or so to recover,” Kiba groaned, falling backwards onto the grass. “I haven’t moved that fast since the war.”

Naruto sprawled next to him, lifting a hand to pat Akamaru as the dog came and settled next to Kiba. “Jiraiya-sensei pushed me hard when he trained me, so I got used to using a lot of chakra when I travelled. I guess I’m used to people being able to keep up with me?”

“Eh, it’s fine,” Kiba said between bites of a second ration bar, holding another one out for Akamaru. “As long as you don’t go crazy fast, me and Akamaru can keep up with you just fine. Right boy?”

Akamaru barked in agreement, and Naruto chuckled. “Shika gave me a bunch of stuff to study. Wanna do that tonight?”

“Sure,” Kiba agreed, studying Naruto’s pack and wondering exactly how much ‘stuff’ Shikamaru had given him. It looked heavy, but for all he knew, Naruto had filled it with instant ramen. Concentrating, he sniffed the air, but while he got a whiff of ramen from Naruto’s pack, it smelled old.

Shifting slightly to rest his head against Akamaru’s stomach, he watched the sunlight filter through the trees and inhaled Naruto’s natural wind-and-salt-and-fox scent, feeling himself relax for the first time in what felt like months. This was nice, he realized. He had felt weighed down in Konoha, but barely half a day away from it that weight was beginning to lift.

Turning his head, he lazily watched Naruto as Naruto dug a book from his pack and flipped it open, smirking as he realized it was one of Jiraiya’s novels. “You old enough to be reading that?” he joked, getting a glare and a swat on the knee in response.

“Nap for an hour,” Naruto said instead, rolling onto his back and balancing the book on his stomach. “I’ll wake you when its time to go.”

“’kay,” Kiba mumbled, already half-asleep. He drifted off to the sound of turning pages and Naruto’s soft laughter mixing with Akamaru’s steady breathing.

\- - -

The three of them sat around a campfire later than night, a scroll unfurled in front of Naruto and Kiba. It detailed old laws of Konoha that had been overturned or reformed between its founding and the start of Tsunade becoming Konoha, and Kiba could tell Naruto was utterly bored by it. “Why do I have to know all this?” Naruto burst out at last, leaning back with a scowl. “Isn’t it the Council’s job to know this more than me?”

“I think it’s important for the Hokage to know where the village’s current laws came from, and how they can change over time,” Kiba said, scanning the scroll slowly. “Yeah, it is the Council’s job to know these things and offer advice on it, but they’re not gonna be around forever, right? Sure, Tsunade-sama and Kakashi-sensei will be on your council and they’ll help you, but the Hokage kinda needs to know everything about Konoha in order to govern effectively.”

Naruto huffed and glared at the scroll, so Kiba decided to try another tactic. “What part are you having trouble with?”

Naruto pointed to a section dealing with laws around clans and how much they could govern themselves versus how much control Konoha had over them. “I understand some of the stuff in here, but most of it is gibberish to me!”

Kiba took a closer look and realized that it probably _was_ gibberish to Naruto, since the section contained a lot of kanji that had fallen out of everyday use. “Then why don’t we rewrite it to make it easier to understand?” he suggested, motioning for Akamaru to grab his pack. His partner brought it over, and Kiba rubbed his head gratefully before retrieving a blank scroll and a pen.

“We can do that?” Naruto asked, face scrunched up in confusion.

“Why not?” Kiba said, beginning to outline the major points of the clan laws section. He recognized a few of the points from looking into the Inuzuka clan laws, but a lot of it was stuff that had been abolished during the time of the first two Hokages. “We can probably do it for the whole thing if you want, since it’s giving you so much trouble.”

“Really?!” Kiba yelped in surprise as arms suddenly wrapped around his neck, Naruto pulling him sideways as he hugged him. “You’re the best, Kiba!” he cheered right in Kiba’s ear, making him wince.

“Indoor voice, Naruto!” he wheezed, rubbing his ear when Naruto released him with an apologetic laugh. Across the fire from them, Akamaru yipped with laughter and pointed out that Kiba’s face was red, making Kiba scowl. Of course his face was red, Naruto had half-strangled him!

\- - -

They continued to rewrite the scroll on their breaks as they travelled towards Yugakure, crossing into the Land of Hot Water three days after they had left Konoha. The hidden village was half a day from the border at an easy pace, and the three of them ran through the forests that covered most of the country, the distant mountains marking the border with the Land of Frost growing ever closer.

The approached the canyon area Yugakure was located in around noon, slowing to a steady walk as they headed up the cliff towards the gate leading into the village. Kiba was the one who filled out the paperwork for their visit, and they were directed to the village head to deliver the items entrusted to them.

As they strolled through the village, Kiba was glad to see much of the damage caused by the war had been repaired, and new construction was taking place. Akamaru had his nose in the air, soaking up all the strange scents from the village, and Kiba wrinkled his own nose as he caught a strong scent of sulphur from a hot spring resort they passed. Marking the resort off as somewhere _not_ to stay, he smiled as he listened to Naruto excitedly point out interesting things and people that caught his eyes as they walked.

An hour later, they had finished their mission and everyone’s stomach was growling. “Let’s get ramen!” Naruto cried as they walked back down the main street of the village.

Kiba sighed dramatically, causing Naruto to lightly punch his shoulder. “But I wanted barbecue...”

“We can have that for supper! Ramen for lunch!” Naruto insisted, then grabbed his arm and dragged him down a sidestreet towards a ramen stall.

Akamaru barked with laughter, and Kiba huffed at his unsympathetic partner. “Just you wait,” he warned. “You’ll be sick of the smell of ramen by the time we leave!” Akamaru shook his head and bounded ahead towards the ramen vendor, tail wagging furiously.

“Traitor,” Kiba mumbled as they ducked under the curtains and into the stall.

“No, he just has good taste!” Naruto replied, pushing him onto a stool and grabbing a menu. “Oh wow, I wonder what Hot Water Ramen is? Oooh, Steamy Ramen sounds good too!”

Kiba groaned and buried his face in his arms, Akamaru laughing at him all the while.

\- - -

Naruto kept his word and they went to a barbecue place for supper, although Kiba privately thought the barbecue in Konoha was better. It had taken some wandering around, but they had managed to find a place that didn’t stink of sulphur to stay at. The resort was a small place on the outer edge of the village, low cliffs rising around it to provide privacy. They were the only ninja at the resort, but the owner seemed happy enough to have them, cooing over Akamaru when they first checked in.

They ended up sharing a large room, which Kiba was fine with. Lounging on his futon after supper, he watched Naruto read for a bit before suggesting, “Wanna check out the hot springs?”

“Yeah, sure!” Naruto bounced up and grabbed their towels they had been given, throwing one to Kiba.

“You comin’ boy?” Kiba asked his partner, getting a yawn in return. “Alright, stay here and watch our stuff,” he said, giving Akamaru a wave and following Naruto into the hall.

They had the hot springs to themselves, and Kiba slid into the water after quickly washing off. “Wish Konoha’s hot springs were as quiet as this,” he said, inhaling the warm steam.

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” Catching the distracted tone in Naruto’s voice, he twisted around and saw that Naruto was staring at the water sadly.

“You alright?” Kiba asked, wondering if he had somehow insulted his friend by pointing out one of Konoha’s flaws.

Naruto was silent as he sat down at the edge of the hot springs, letting his feet dangle in the water. “I just realized I hadn’t been to one of these since Jiraiya-sensei died,” he said softly, and Kiba’s breath caught as he literally smelled the wave of regret and sadness coming off his friend.

“You two visited a lot of hot spring resorts, then?” Kiba said carefully, turning back around and leaning his head back against the edge of the pool.

“Yeah, a ton. We practically lived out of them, sometimes.” Naruto still sounded sad, but Kiba could hear the fondness in his voice. “No matter how many we stayed at, Ero-sennin always said he needed to visit another to do more research for his books.”

“Y’know, you never tell me much about what happened while you were out of the village aside from ‘I did a ton of training!’”

“I was sure I told you more than that!” Naruto huffed and kicked water in Kiba’s direction. Snorting and shaking water out of his hair, Kiba splashed water back, grinning at the surprised look on Naruto’s face.

“You started it,” he pointed out, probably unwisely. Naruto stared for a moment, then launched himself at Kiba, sending them both into the middle of the hot springs. A small-scale water fight broke out once Kiba fought his way to the surface, and by the end of it they were both out of breath and laughing.

“Come on, tell me about your training!” Kiba whined as they soaked in the hot water. “You must have seen some cool stuff!”

Naruto blushed and launched into a story, complete with sound effects and lots of hand waving.

\- - -

Kiba was awake before Naruto the next morning. Making sure not to disturb Akamaru, he slid out of bed and quietly got out the scroll he had been working on, settling down next to his partner to continue working on it. He was almost done, he thought, although the clan laws section needed more work. There were a few things he wanted to ask his mother about, since she knew the Inuzuka clan laws like the back of her hand.

He had never really been into clan stuff, despite being the son of the clan head. Hana had always been seen as the natural successor to their mother, since Kiba had always found all the fancy wording and stuffy meetings boring. But as he worked, he found the politics and the ways the laws wove together – or contradicted each other, as was the case with many of these overturned laws – kinda interesting.

And, well. Kiba looked over at Naruto, snoring away in his frog-decorated sleeping cap. Shikamaru was the obvious choice to be Naruto’s top advisor. But Naruto needed more than just the previous two Hokage and a whip-smart jounin, even if said jounin was a Nara. None of those three were what Kiba would call a ‘people-person’, and Naruto needed someone like that. Yeah, Kiba was rough and rude and inexperienced, but he knew how people worked.

“Holy shit,” Kiba mumbled to himself, feeling like his whole world had shifted. Akamaru raised his head to look at him, but Kiba smiled and patted him on the head, mouthing ‘it’s fine’, to his partner.

He...he wanted to help Naruto be the best damn Hokage the village had ever had. Sure, Kiba still wanted to be Hokage, but he could tell that wasn’t going to happen, not without something terrible happening. And Kiba didn’t want that at all. Naruto deserved to be Hokage until he was as old as the Third has been, or until someone even better came along. He would be happy supporting Naruto as best he could, he realized. It would be a lot of work, but Naruto himself was working so hard to achieve his dream, it only made sense to Kiba to do the same to support him.

Kiba took a deep breath, feeling the last of the weight that had been dragging him down fall away. Inuzuka were a goal-oriented clan, and he had a clear goal now. He would support Naruto with everything he had, and he knew Akamaru would be with him every step of the way.

Bending back over the scroll, he peered at what he had written so far and began to edit it, deciding to ask Naruto if they could stay in Yugakure another day.


End file.
